Israel Travel Blog
The first Interfaith Connection trip to Israel takes off with Helena McMahon, LMFT, Interfaith Connection Manager, leading the way!
Blog entries, posted by the group are listed below for those who wish to follow their travels.
If you have questions about this trip or other JCCSF travel opportunities, please contact Ariel Goldstein, Travel Programs Manager, at 415.276.1506 or
agoldstein@jccsf.org.
Eve of Shabbat and Shabbat in Tel Aviv
This trip has flown by. Last Shabbat we were in Jerusalem, saying evening prayers and eating chocolate rugelach on a rooftop above the room where the Last Supper took place. We then walked down to the Western Wall and said our own personal prayers, felt the smooth golden stones and watched everyone celebrating ...
Read More > Today we left what has become one of my favorite places in Israel, the Maagan Eden Holiday Village which is situated on the southern shore of the Kinerret, a.k.a. the Sea of Galilee. We stayed at this tropical paradise for two nights, where peacocks roam free, you wake up to birds chirping on your balcony and one can choose to swim either in the pool ...
Read More >Interfaith Couples' Israel Trip - May 28
Waking up and being on the Kinneret lake on a beautiful morning is a great way to start your day. The first time I went to Israel with my family nearly 20 years ago, my first destination was Tiberias off the Kinneret and it was one of my favorite memories of Israel. I was happy to be back here with Aimee. ...
Read More >We have a wonderful guide in Sharon who has encyclopedic knowledge of facts, is sensitive to our questions and is close to the heart of the land.
Sharon teaches that her favorite thing about ancient history is that it keeps changing. On Masada, we learned how soldier’s initiation into the army involved marching up the snake trail by torchlight ...
Read More >We began our last day in Jerusalem with a trip to the Museum on the Seam. Museum curator, Raphie Etgar, wanted the museum’s latest exhibition “Bare Life” to represent a grittier portrait of life in Israel (and beyond). We “experienced” Bare Life with its visual pictorials and physical exhibits of hostility, wartime fences, imprisonments, global poverty ...
Read More >What a Day!
Our morning began quite early with an 8 am visit to the Chagall windows at the Hadassah Hospital. These windows which represent Joseph and his 11 brothers are the perfect combination of ancient times and modern art. It was such a pleasure to spend 20 minutes gazing at them and enjoying their symbolism.
The peaceful reverence of ...
Read More >Shabbat Shalom
Even if you've celebrated shabbat before, a shabbat in Jerusalem is something special. The city shuts down almost entirely with no bus service and hardly any cars in the street. The shops are empty but the walkways are full of people wishing each other "shabbat shalom" and passing the day quietly. When you're used to the 24 hour ...
Read More >The more we learn the more complex it gets. The story of this place is like a many layered cake. Everything has more than one meaning, ingredient, and flavor, and nothing is what it appears to be at first glance.
We began today retracing the last steps of Jesus’ life – the 12 Stations of the Cross – which tell the story of his condemnation, ...
Read More >Our first official day of touring was kicked off with a visit to the Haas Promenade, a viewpoint in the Southeast section of the city which offers a panoramic view of Jerusalem, old and new, and where to the west way off in the distance one can see the mountains of Jordan. We met our tour guide, Sharon Wagner, who brilliantly introduced us to this ...
Read More >Mark and I arrived today in Israel after two amazingly smooth (albeit long!) flights, the first leg of the journey from San Francisco to New York's Kennedy Airport; the second to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. While waiting for our flight in New York, we were mesmerized by the incredible diversity of people at our gate, and our people watching continued ...
Read More >
